Thunder Hills Country Club - Final Presentation

My group wanted to create a new country club in St. George because there are so many seniors here that love to play golf. My assignment was to put together a postcard. I tried to research other country clubs and what their postcards and advertisements look like to create something that would show a high end golf experience. We wanted the advertising to look very prestigious so that when people saw it, they thought upper class and fancy. The style was a Caesar style.

I used Vistaprint.com to design the card. I found pictures from google images. I wanted to find pictures that matched the style my group was looking for. The logo, address, phone number, website address, text colors, and fonts were all designed from others in my group. Unfortunately, Vistaprint does not have Droid Serif fonts and my group suggested that I use Baskerville Roman and Times New Roman because they said it was a close enough match to what they originally wanted.

The goal of the advertisement is to attract the right audience and create a visceral response. We want someone to see the postcard and feel that they must be there. The content was very important to attract people who would be interested in this type of environment. Listed on the back of the card were all the amenities like 18 holes, a fully equipped, fitness center, Olympic size swimming pool, PGA professional golf Lessons, Tennis Courts, pickleball courts, casual & upscale restaurants, and community center clubhouse. Thunder Hills Country Club has a lot of entertainment to offer their members. I even added a QR code to make it easy for customers to find more information and quickly link to the club website.

Through the design of this postcard, the balance, the contrast, and the choice of colors, we want to convince the St George community that the Thunder Hills Country Club is the best club for them to join because of the beautiful landscape, green grass, and all the provided amenities. We want all adults, not just seniors, to feel that this is the the place for them to join.

Here is the final postcard.

Mis-en-Scene

Thinking about this assignment and going back through all of the movies I have seen, there is one scene in one movie that stands out for me.  Back in 1997, Titanic came out and was a huge success.  For me, one of the final scenes in the movie is one I will never forget because of how it made me feel. The scene is after the Titanic sank and the people who survived the sinking are now in the freezing cold water.  The two main characters, Jack and Rose, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, find a door floating and Jack makes sure that Rose stays on this door because he knows if she stays in the water she will freeze to death.

This scene shows hundreds of passengers scrambling to save their own lives, yelling for help from the life boats, and yet during this scene all of them end up freezing to death. This part of the scene where Jack and Rose are trying to hang on to life, their relationship and their future is the part that I have a really hard time forgetting. The fact that the director chose to only show them in this close up moment, the ice, the pale skin and blue lips, it all means something to the audience watching.

The director, writer, and producer of this movie was James Cameron. The director's job is to make sure that all of the parts of the movie come together.  They make the final decision on what they want each scene to look like. James Cameron has had a successful career since he directed The Terminator back in the 1980's. He likes to tell a story that means something to the audience.  He uses a lot of panning out so that the audience sees the whole picture and makes us feel like we are a part of the movie.  He loves to use slow motion to dramatize a scene.  Many of his films have themes of humanity and our arrogance. Titanic shows how no amount of manpower can overcome nature.

One Gestalt principle that I think is in this scene is the Law of Pragnanz where everything is reduced to a simple form.  The only thing that matters is the relationship in this moment and so whatever could happen in the background is not important.

This scene visually communicates with the audience because all of us can imagine being in freezing cold water and trying to save someone we love. The frost in their hair, the fact that we could see their breathe... all of those things made the feelings of grief so powerful.  I do not know if I have ever been so sad during another scene of another movie because of all of the visual effects that were in place in this scene.

Directed, Written, and Produced by: James Cameron
Production Design by: Peter Lamont
Art Direction by: Martin Laing
Set Decoration by: Michael Ford
Costume Design by: Deborah Lynn Scott

Compose A Frame

The rule of thirds basically means that the eye is drawn to a point in the picture.  In this picture the eye is drawn to the river as it disappears around the corner. Everything else in the picture, even though they are a lot bigger, slope down toward the river. 

As I said before the with sloping lines of the mountain and tree, the diagonal rule is seen in the slope.  Everything slopes down to the river so that the eye focuses on it. 

The vector rule in this picture could be just a matter of the river being the focus but I think it is more of a motion vector because when I look at this, I am curious to know where the river is going to go. My eyes immediately look beyond the river and notice that it will curve around a bend on the left.  

This picture brings a feeling of beauty and peace and it partially does that because of the balance and focus of the picture on the river. 

Axiom of Web Design

The website that I chose for this assignment is from New York and Co and the link is http://www.nyandcompany.com/nyco/  I chose this because it is a website I come back to over and over to shop for clothes. One of the reasons I like it so much is because their business and communication objectives are very clear.  The home page has a lot of continuity because it is balanced throughout scrolling.  One example is the first two pictures.  Because it has a tall woman the letters on the opposite side match her height so that the balance is the same. In the second picture the two ladies are the same height while the words in the middle match their height.

This company also has intuitiveness and affordance because when I want to see what clothes look like before I buy them, all I have to do is put the mouse on the picture and it switches from back to front so I can see the clothes from both angles.  That makes the company more believable because they are showing me all of the shirt, pants, or dress.  I am able to see what I am buying in every angle because they made this feature.

Design Presentation - Packaging

Avon - City Rush Perfume

Form and lines - Sharp, square, Masculine, powerful, business-minded

Color - Male (gold, dark, larger) Female (smaller, silver, lighter)

Contrast - Design and lettering pop out because of the difference between the bottle and lettering

Size - The male cologne is large while the female perfume is small. 

Gestalt Principle - continuity because the lines feel like they will keep going around the square

When I see this bottle, it makes me feel like the perfume is focused on a masculine design more than feminine appeal.  If I open the women's perfume I am afraid it will smell more like a man. 

Melaleuca's Sei Bella - Bella Fiore

Melaleuca's Sei Bella - Mystique

Form and Lines - square but soft, rounded corners.  Feminine and soft

Color - pink and purple to show female 

Contrast - subtle but still contrasting between the bottle, the colored perfume and the label

Gestalt Principle - Continuity because the lines continue around the square. 

This design is brighter and more alluring.  It feels more feminine because of the color, the shape, the design of the cap, and even the small details.  I am expecting, when I open this, it will smell more like what a woman would wear. 

Contrast, Harmony and Balance

When I think of contrast, I think of city lights.  There is nothing more opposite than the bright lights of the city contrasting with the dark night sky.  This picture shows that very well, not only with the sky, but also with the water surrounding the city. The color is also opposite.  The city lights show a lot of warm color from the orange and yellow glow while the sky and water shows cool colors like blue and black.

This picture also feels balance to me because even though the city is alone in the middle of the picture, the lights reflecting off the water make me feel like city is continuing into the water. That make the picture have more symmetrical balance because of that mirror image.

Gestalt's Law of closure is also something I notice here.  To me, there are not many buildings together but one big city. The Law of Closure says that objects that are grouped together feel like a whole.

This picture is beautiful and it makes me want to sit and look at it forever.  My eyes are very drawn to the architecture and makes me wonder how we as people have developed an amazing skill for building such tall buildings and cities.

Visceral Response

This photograph shows the Red Hills Garden in Pioneer Park in St George, Utah. This photograph is art to me because it makes me feel peace, serenity, and makes me want to live there. 

The lines in the photograph are horizontal, which is meant to bring a feeling of peace and open space. 

The form in this picture shows a lot of geometric shapes in both natural and man-made form.  The plants, rocks, and water form both geometric and organic shapes. The man-made sidewalks are more geometric. the shapes make me feel interested in the garden.  

The color in this photograph is mild.  The background is dull so that more focus is on the garden. The colors in the front are brighter and warm, while the back is light and cool. The color makes me feel relaxed.  It isn't a strong, bright color but it is enough to draw me to the photograph.  It is very calming. 

The space here feels more positive. Most of the action takes up the whole picture. There isn't a lot of negative space. I enjoy that the positive space takes up most of the picture because it is not busy positive space. It is more focused on nature and the beauty that surrounds us.