sweepstakes

Two projects I worked on last month are live! (and they both happen to be sweepstakes) Click on the images to visit them live online.

Katy Perry Sweeps:

Seven Daughters Wine Sweeps:

post-grad

So it's been more than a month since graduation and I've been keeping myself busy by working full-time hours at UsMagazine.com, although technically I'm still considered a part-time employee. But it's nice to have a little safety cushion as I figure out what to do with my post-grad life. This blog will eventually come to an end since I'm no longer in grad school. When that time comes (most likely when I land a full-time job), perhaps I'll start a new one. For now, I'll leave you with a recent project, outside of work, I worked on this week. Recently I have been a little obsessed with infographics and saw a bunch of infographic/visual resumes. So that inspired me to create my own. I designed it entirely in Illustrator.

but you're like really pretty

So when I discovered my boss' blog, But You're Like Really Pretty, last month, it gave me the inspiration for what my final project in Motion Design could be. I wanted to create an animation using his illustrations to promote his blog. I proposed the idea to Ryan and he was totally on board. I had a lot of fun working it, so, without further ado, here it is!



Art by Ryan Casey

my last week

That's right folks, my adventures will be coming to an end this coming Friday. It's been a long, yet quick, road to the completion of my degree. In the last two years, I've probably worked a lot harder than I ever have before, juggling school with jobs and internships. Soon it will be over and I'm looking forward to whatever is next...although at this point, I have no idea what that is.

As for now, I'm up wrapping up two final projects, which I'll then post. Until then, here is something from my internship. Most of the design work I do is rarely shown on the site because I mainly do sales/ad mocks for potential clients. But last week I was assigned to create the "Shop the Issue" collage, as seen below.

for the gleeks!

Last week I got to watch Darren Criss (aka Blaine on Glee) perform a few songs live when he stopped by the Rolling Stone office. And now you can watch them online. Enjoy!

hump day treat

I recently discovered that my supervisor, Ryan Casey, at UsMagazine.com is also the creator of a hilarious blog. For all you lovers of celebrity gossip and pop culture, you will definitely get a kick out of it. Visit But You're Like Really Pretty now, for your hump day treat! It's also quite a happy coincidence that I found it soon after my last after effects project.

Here's a preview of the kind of art he makes:

kinetic typography

The second project for my Motion Design class was to create a text animation. Our animations only had to be around 10 seconds and not as elaborate as I chose to create but I decided to challenge myself by attempting to animate a rhythmic kinetic typography (examples below). It took me a really long time and a lot of self-teaching via video tutorials but I think it came out alright for my first attempt.

I chose a quote from the movie Mean Girls as I dedicate this to my beloved Swirlies. Miss you girls!




And here are a few of my favorites that inspired me to do this (of course they're much better than mine):

where am i?

This is my first project for my Motion Design class.

Assignment: Create a short trip that invites us to experience a place or event that interests you. You may choose a geographical, historical, literary, artistic,or personal subject. The approach can be alternative, "narrative", documentary, experimental ... it is up to you. 30-60 seconds.

The inspiration for my concept came with the release of the Art Project powered by Google.

oscars

The Academy Awards are this weekend! I'm more excited to see the lovely James Franco hosting the show with Anne Hathaway, more than anything. But anyways, if you're in an Oscar pool with friends or just want a list of the nominees head to RollingStone.com and download Peter Travers' 2011 Oscars Ballot.

hint: a certain someone you know created it :)

happy 2011!

First post of the new year. School is back in session tomorrow and although I'm dreading it (I sure enjoyed 10+ hours of sleep each night) it's also the beginning of the end. 16 weeks til graduation...oh boy. I'm really excited for the courses I'll be taking this semester: Projects in Motion Design, Projects in Interactive Media, and Competitive Strategies: Branding.

I'll end this post with the video shoots I helped with on my last two days of my internship last month.

RS Live: Goo Goo Dolls

wyclef at rolling stone

If you've been following my blog, you might remember that I mentioned meeting Wyclef Jean on the first day of my internship. That wouldn't be the last time I'd see him as he came in again for an acoustic session in November.

Watch his performance here as he busts into a freestyle out of a classic:

happy holidays!

If you know me at all, you know my favorite part of the Christmas season are the lights and decorations. So the other night, I rented the 7D and took some photos of the wonderful displays around New York (well mainly around Rockefeller Center since that's where the huge tree is). Enjoy!

Look closely and you'll see there's a proposal happening. While I was
taking the photo I didn't even notice until I heard everyone cheering
because I was trying to focus the lens on the tree.

online portfolio

For my final project in Interactive, I designed and built an online portfolio of my work using DreamWeaver. Thanks to my generous cousin, Martin, the site is actually live as he is hosting it for me temporarily. I will eventually have to setup my own space and domain to be more professional, but just don't quite have the funds to do so yet. What is currently up is what I submitted for my final, but I definitely want to continue to develop and tweak it. I'll be taking an intermediate Interactive course next semester so looking forward to that.

Side note: The form on the contact page doesn't actually work, since I'm waiting for my professor to set it up for me as he said he would.

So without further ado, voila!  This semester's labor of love.

semester wrap-up!

I just finished my third semester of grad school! Only one more to go...

The past 3 weeks have been quite stressful and busy but now I can relax and recap the last few weeks.

• I was given the opportunity to teach a set of two, two-part Intro to Final Cut Pro Workshops to Parsons MFA Fine Arts & Photography students. Yet another opportunity to lend and exercise my talents to the department I work for. The first class I taught was definitely nerve-wracking as it was my first time ever teaching a class...and to students who admit are not the most tech-savvy people no less. So that was definitely another challenge in itself. But the first section went well and I was able to adjust my lesson plan and better my way of explaining things with the second group.

• I completed my internship with the online media team at Rolling Stone. Funny thing is that on my last day I was able to go on-location for the first time since the summer and it was a fun shoot. So the internship was book-ended with  a good first day, meeting Wyclef, and ended with a delicious pork loin cooked by Deane Sheremet. Although, I completed my time with one team, I will be returning to Rolling Stone at the end of January for an internship with the web design team. And if you haven't checked rollingstone.com recently, go now. They unveiled their redesigned site and I helped with a lot of the backend migration of their media. I'll post more videos I helped with as they become available on the site.

•  I will post my final project from my Interactive class separately.

• Last week one of my professors was able to get our class free admission to a live streaming TEDWomen conference  at the Paley Center. Although when she spoke about it, we were all under the impression we would be attending the actual conference, but it was still pretty interesting and a nice little perk to being a Media Studies student.

• Book recommendations (both were used for a comparative analysis between Pixar & DreamWorks Animation): 
• The Pixar Touch, David Price (read parts of the book for research last semester and read more this semester. Very inspirational, and only made my love for Pixar even greater)
• The Men Who Would Be King, Natalie LaPorte (an inside take on the drama behind the story of DreamWorks, kinda felt like a gossip mag)

This is probably the most text-heavy post I've ever written for this blog so I'll leave it at that :)

Happy Holidays!

banner ad

For my interactive class I had to design and animate a banner ad with Flash. I made an ad for the same product I used in the simple website I created many weeks ago. And it works like an actual ad too..so click away!

video roundup 11.16.10

Get ready to pump those fists in the air!

Off the Cuff with Peter Travers: Mike "The Situation" Sorentino

The Situation Reveals Whose Abs He Wants

And some styling techniques: Get a Sleek A-List Blow Out

parsons fine arts mfa open studios

I'm actually getting a chance to put my design skills to use in the real world. I work in the Fine Arts department at Parsons so I was asked to help out with publicity materials for an upcoming event. Now, I can't take complete credit for the design because I wasn't the person who started it. I was asked to revise the first draft with a few requests. So I kept the original concept and made some adjustments to enhance the design and clean it up. I think the only thing I can take full credit for is the part with the names.

And so based on this poster, I was asked to create a postcard to match it.

interactive

So I haven't really posted anything from a course I'm taking this semester that focuses on interactive media/web design, but that's mainly because we haven't really done anything worth sharing. Most of the class is learning about the tools we'll need to build our final project. The main program we use is Dreamweaver. Although I've played around with Dreamweaver before, I've never really fully understood what I was doing, so this class is helping me use it correctly.

Even though we haven't done too many projects, I might as well share what I did for my first assignment last month. All we had to do is build a simple 3-page website showcasing a product. And while the screen shots below may present the site as something quite simple, but it was actually a lot harder to build than I would have imagined. And the problem with screen shots is that you can't see the interactive part of it! (Well besides being able to navigate from page to page the only other interactivity are the links with rollovers..haha)

video roundup 11.6.10

Just to reiterate, incase you haven't been following, the links in my "video roundups" are videos I have helped out with in one way or another during my internship.

RS Live: Secret Sisters

RS Live: Everest

N.E.R.D Perform Live, Talk about 'Nothing'

5 Reasons to Watch...90210

Atlanta's New Housewife: Kim Zolciak Has "No Talent"

And here are some I didn't have anything to do with but would see my bosses editing.

So if you love Conan, watch on! Behind the scenes at Conan O'Brien's RS Cover Shoot

Want to learn how to make a Waldorf, Old-fashioned, or a Manhattan?

video roundup 10.24.10

RS Live: Fran Healy

And, check out my cameo in At the Movies with Peter Travers: Paranormal Activity 2. Can you spot me?