STA Blog

Raaga Srimadh

Raaga Srimadh

Week 4

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Week at a Glance

This week, I continued working through training work, and was introduced to my first project.

Create Pixel Art in Illustrator

Programs: Illustrator

Using the KB tutorial, I created pixel art of Hippopotamus (“William”) from the Middle Kingdom, 1961-1878 BC, sourced from the MET museum website.

Using this image, I created the following iterations:

 

 

Following this project, I moved on to Learning the Principles and Elements of Design.

 

Learning the Principles and Elements of Design

 

Using the KB tutorial, I created a slide deck of each design principle and element with examples pulled from famous artworks. After collecting examples, I went into Illustrator to outline the area where the principle/element is displayed.

 

 

 

Project Work

In between my training work, I was able to work on my first project assigned to me – 11.1B Music, Art and Theatre. Using a predetermined vocabulary list, I collected image options for each and placed them into the google sheet. I am currently still waiting on approval for the image options.

 

 

Week 3

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Custom/Studio Course Graphics

Programs: Photoshop, Illustrator

This week, I worked through creating a custom set of course graphics based on the below prompt:

 

Course name & number: ART3800: Twentieth Century Art
Professor Title: Dr.Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez
(Fake) UT Department:College of Fine Arts, Department of Art and Art History

Professor Request
“Please look at what artists and pieces are in my updated syllabus to draw inspiration for your design. I don’t specialize graphic design personally, however I do think you may be able to draw inspiration from the Bauhaus artists of the 1920’s and 30’s. I also take my students to tour the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum each semester, which may bring you inspiration as well. Thank you…”

 

Using the prompts and the KB tutorial, I first focused on creating a visual direction for the entirety of the project. To better communicate this part of the process I created the following moodboards:

 

From the directions outlined above, I moved forward with the second moodboard with a revised color palette. This helped me to create the digital wall monitor, canvas callouts, digital desk skirt, studio mockups, vertical monitor, canvas homepage banner as well as the iPad overlay.

 

Following this project, I began working on tasks from the Introduction to Design History and Styles categories.

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History of Design

I moved on to the History of Design module, where after reviewing the different eras of art and design, I chose the arts and crafts movement to base a design on.

Following the KB tutorial, I was able to create a seamless design graphic–

 

 

Basing the elements off this color palette, I was able to create a sense of unity and depth.

 

This week, I was also able to begin working on the next task– Advanced Training: Create Pixel Art in Illustrator.

Week 1 – My First Blog!

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Working Through Intro Training

 

STA Handbook Powerpoint

This week, I began working on my training tasks, familiarizing myself with the platforms we use, as well as the lab. For my first training project, I worked on creating a powerpoint that helped me better grasp the content within the STA handbook. I chose 5 rules that apply to my experience here as an STA, and formatted them in a powerpoint. This is the final slide set I came up with–

 

 

Following this project, I began working on the remaining projects within the Basic STA Training category. The first being Style A&B Course Graphics.

Style A&B Course Graphics

For this training module, I used Canvas and Powerpoint templates to create Style A and Style B Designs for DES304 – Design Studio I. This was more self-paced and involved my first experience gathering feedback from Basecamp.

 

 

This training module helped set me up for the following task– Custom/Studio Course Graphics, which is what I continued into the next week.

STA Blog Banner and Caricature

In addition to my training modules this week, I had the opportunity to create a blog banner and caricature to better represent my creative style on the team. It was an excellent way to ease into the program and exercise my design skills.

 

Welcome to the STA Blog!

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Hi Raaga! Welcome to the STA Blog! This the page where your blog posts will published.

Toward the end of your STA Orientation, you’ll design and upload a banner to go at the top of this page.

Upload a Blog Banner

Step One: Design Your Banner in Photoshop

Use these Photoshop specs when you’re making your banner:

    • Your banner should be 780 pixels wide (the height doesn’t matter)
    • Must include your name, your major, and your expected graduation year
    • Your banner should reflect who you are (your personality, interests or major)
    • Make sure to save your banner for the web (i.e. File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy))
    • If you save your banner as a JPG, make sure sure the quality is high (i.e. at least 60)

Step Two: Save Your Banner

  • There are two places you can save your completed projects: UT Box and the LAITS server. You’ll be given a personal folder in both locations. For now, you only have to save your banner to UT Box, but you may have to access the server at some point in the future.

Accessing UT Box

Accessing the LAITS server

    • Accessing the LAITS server from off-campus is slightly more complicated.
    • You’ll need to be registered with Duo if you aren’t already (you can register here).
    • Then you’ll need to connect to the UT VPN and the LAITS server. The videos below will walk you through how to do that:
    •  Then navigate to your STA volume folder and save
      • smb://file.laits.utexas.edu/sta/Raaga Srimadh
    • Save your banner both as an image and an unmerged PSD

Step Three: Upload Your Banner to the STA Blog

  • Log in the the STA Blog here. You should’ve received an email confirming your new WordPress account with your username and assigned password. If didn’t get it or you can’t log in, ask De’sha or another STA.
  • You’ll be able to change your password anytime by going to Users > Your Profile > Account Management > New Password.

Uploading media and banners in WP

  • Read these links before you upload your banner.
  • They will walk you through how to upload media to your blog.

How to Upload a Homepage Banner

Adding New Posts and Media

Make Your First Blog post

  • Reflect on the day. You blog posts will be a documented experience of your time as an STA with LAITS. They can include anything you want to share about the projects you’re working on, and the more media (screenshots, images, links, videos, gifs) you can use, the better.
  • For today, write a bit about about yourself and what you did during orientation.
  • If you haven’t already, upload your banner.

Things to Remember

Image Specs

  • You should never copy and paste images intoto your blog. Always upload images into the media section of blog first (Click on the add media button), then insert the image from the media folder to display on your blog.
  • Don’t use the thumbnail version of your images.
  • Use images that are 72 dpi
  • Screenshots are fine
  • Images that are 780 pix wide format nicely above or below text blocks

Always Categorize Your Posts

  • Always check the category “Fall 2023 – Spring 2024” on the blog posts you make this summer. This is the only category you need to check.
  • Make sure your posts are categorized correctly so that all of your work is documented in the correct semesters.

Commenting on Basecamp

Notification comments: etiquette, files, questions, feedback

Let us know when you’ve completed this task by adding a link to your blog to a comment in Basecamp.
Notes for all comments in Basecamp:
  • *Always address the person/people you are writing to by their names.
  • *Always use complete sentences.
  • *Always add links or paths to your design file in your STA folder.
  • *Make it easier for your collaborators and mentors to give you feedback on a design by adding screenshots to your comment.

 

Notify people in Basecamp by adding the @ symbol before their names (no spaces), otherwise they may not see your comment.

@ your STA mentor in your comments when you want to:

  • ask us questions about the mechanics of using the STA blog,
  • about the mechanics of photoshop,
  • to let us know that you have completed this task,
  • or that you would like a little feedback on on your banner design

Thank you & have fun!